Beyond innocence
by Lord rax
Summary: "Welcome to the Family, Aventus." T for violence. 5 years after the events of Skyrim.
1. Another day

Windhelm was a big place with many different cultural groups. Unfortunately, it was also a very racist place as well. Dark elves were refused jobs and their children were reduced to performing petty thievery or begging. This would be a bad thing to most children...

But not to Aventus. Every day he would thank Talos that Dark elf children were terrible at thievery.

In the center of the Market stood a Aventus, alone in a crowd, a devious smile on his face and a plan up his sleeve.

Taking a deep breath, Aventus scanned the area for potential threats. "THIEF!" Aventus shouted as he pointed at the first dark elf he could see.

Almost like a ripple in water, every Nord head in the area turned to face the dark elf with fanatical racism.

With every ones attention focused away from him, Aventus helped himself to a loaf of bread from the nearest stall.

Just as Aventus thought he was getting away, the guard standing next to him ended his invisibility spell.

The sudden appearance scared Aventus so much that he couldn't even scream.

The guard snatched Aventus' hand while he was still in shock and started walking towards the keep. "You're under arrest Aventus, no excuses." The guards voice was gruff and callous, hardened by many fights and battles. "We've been trying to arrest you for years now." The guards grip on Aventus' wrist was as tight and cold as steel, probably because it was steel gauntlets.

Aventus didn't struggle at all, instead he walked side by side with the guard, still holding the stolen loaf of bread in his free hand. "It was just one loaf. I'll pay my fine."

The guard shook his head. "Oh no kid, you're not out of trouble that fast. You hired the dark brotherhood to organize a murder years back. We can put you away just for that."

Mind racing, Aventus racked his brains for a way to escape legally, if he ran away from the guard, he would instantly be an official criminal and that wouldn't help anything, Jail wasn't an option either.

With his heart almost exploding from stress, Aventus spoke smoothly with his silver tongue, hiding his fear with ease. "Do you know why I've never been arrested before? a 15 year old boy who is a known dark brotherhood assistant?" Aventus spoke both snidely and condescending. "Please tell me, why am I not in jail already?" Aventus forced himself to stay calm, any panic would just make him seem like he was lying, which he was. But that wasn't the point.

The guards walk slowed. "Because you've never been caught stealing before..." His voice was cracking. A smile began to creep up on Aventus' face again.

Now Aventus really was truly calm. He knew he had won this battle of wits. "Oh no, I get caught all the time, but everyone knows that the Dark brotherhood is going to recruit me, any one who even tries to come near me gets killed. You know that... Right?"

The guard slowly stopped walking and slackened his grip slightly, the cold steel of his gauntlets no longer dug into Aventus' arm.

slipping a coin into the guards pocket, Aventus broke out of the guards grip. "That should cover my fine." he said quietly with a mouth full of bread.

With a spring in his step, Aventus walked back to his house, all around him people avoided his gaze and children would stop playing as he passed. Some stared at him, other tried their hardest not to stare.

it would be upsetting to any other teenager... But Aventus had long since stopped caring, instead he was enjoying the respect he was given. People were afraid of him so much that they wouldn't even raise their voice at him, let alone say anything bad about him. Aventus was all too aware of his position as a terror among the populace and he had grown to accept it as part of his life.

With a reputation that mothers/children and war veterans would hide from, it was quite a surprise to find a girl around his age standing outside his house dressed in red and black.

A flash of recognition entered Aventus' mind as he drew closer to her, it was Runa, an orphan like him.

"RUNA!" Aventus rushed towards her and hugged her, the black leather of her clothing was warm to touch and was surprisingly tough.

Her voice was familiar but chilling. "It's good to see you Aventus, but I'm here on official business..." Runa smiled politely and handed him a note.

Aventus casually opened the note and quizzically raised an eye brow, the note contained the words **-It's time-** and a black hand print in the center of the page.

"I suggest you get some sleep..." Runa smiled politely once again and walked away with all the confidence and grace of a noble. Aventus simply stood and watched, wondering what had happened to her since he was gone.

**I usually edit all my chapters a lot, if you notice anything wrong or anything i can improve on, let me know and I'll see if I can do anything about it.**


	2. Red

"Goooooooooood morning! did you sleep well?"

Aventus' eyes flashed open, surprise was etched clearly on his face. Inches away from his head was a pair of bright blue eyes, all other details of the persons face was covered by dark cloth.

Waking where he didn't fall sleep was not a normal experience for Aventus, maybe it happened to normal children, but he had never asked.

After a few moments, Aventus raised an eyebrow "Hello? ...Who are you, exactly?"

The bright blue eyes retracted and small but warm hands pulled on Aventus' arm, tugging him out of bed.

"Get up sleepy head."

Aventus made an incomprehensible groaning sound as he started to sit up.

"We've been watching you Aventus. You're manipulative and sociopathic. You could go far; my dear, dear Aventus." The blue eyed person flicked off their hood but Aventus barely registered it.

Aventus was only just up and out of bed when his blood rushed to his head, stumbling backwards in the temporary darkness, Aventus was soon on his back again. Groaning loudly, Aventus arose once more at a much slower speed. He used this time to take a check of his surroundings.

He was in what appeared to be a rather old building, most probably abandoned, about 5 by 20 meters long with a rather low roof. It was entirely made from old rotting wood with no decoration apart from two extremely new cupboards on the other side of the room. There was also the large bed he slept on.

The person with blue eyes was a young Breton girl, long wavy brown hair and a chirpy/quirky smile. She was also sitting uncomfortably close to him and Aventus didn't know how she got there.

Although she was creepy, Aventus liked her already... despite the fact she had recently kidnapped him

"Uhhh, can I ask your name?" Aventus held out his hand for her to shake it.

"I forgot my name, piece of advice, deal with the Daedra, they never work out, I would know. Call me... Red." The girl did not shake Aventus' hand, instead she just stared at it.

Aventus withdrew his hand a few awkward moments later. "I'll get straight to the point, why am I here, how do I get out, how did i get here and where am I?"

Red gently shoved Aventus out of the way and laid down on the bed and sighed loudly. "you're here to take a test, you take a test to get out, I picked you up, and you're in a very old house." Red smiled politely and swayed her head slightly.

Aventus scowled at the vagueness of her answers. "What test?" Aventus put heavy emphasis on both of those words.

Red sat up quickly."I'm glad you asked."

silently and serenely, Red stepped towards the two cupboards at the other side of the room.

"Quite simple. In the right cupboard we have..." Red opened the cupboard to reveal one large sack cloth and a long stick.

Red then stepped to the left and opened the other cupboard. "In the left cupboard..." Inside was a pile of assorted items, flint, string, rope, lots of oil, a very rusty dagger, a rake, a small rock, a large rock, smelling salts and a fork.

"I bet you would like to see what's in the bag... Wouldn't you..." Red giggled cutely, moving back towards the right cupboard.

Aventus remained quiet. He could barely even hear anything since Red was almost 19 meters away, deeming it to hard to listen, Aventus walked closer to Red.

Lifting the large bag with Ease, Red tipped out its content, a large dark elf man fell out. Alive, but in a magically induced Coma.

Red lifted the dark elf up, held him against the wall and shoved two knives into each of his arms, pinning him to the wall and thus making sure he wouldn't fall to the ground. Aventus couldn't help but grimace.

next, red placed the large stick about half way across the room.

"here are the rules." Red held up her hands and raised a finger.

"One, you must kill this Dark elf, or you die. It doesn't matter how you kill him, but try and be entertaining."

Red raised a second finger and smiled deviously. "If you injure or kill darky mc-elf while you're in front of that stick, you die. Oh, and you also can't move the stick. In case you're wondering, the stick is exactly 10 meters away from the dark elf."

Red raised a third finger "The dark elf must remain pinned to the wall when it dies, you are not allowed to touch the dark elf with your body or clothes, nor are you allowed to touch the knives that are supporting it, or you get a savage beating from me... Then you die... Followed by another beating"

"Four." Red raised a thumb. "if this building gets burned down, you die, most likely by fire."

"Finally." Red raised her pinky "If the Dark elf wakes up, you die. But don't worry, nothing you can do can wake him... Until the spell wares off... I'm not telling you how long you have. Just make it fast."

Aventus simply stared at Red.

_What ever happened to Runa... _

"Well, get on with it."

_Reviews appreciated. Preferably on how I can improve my writing._


	3. He had it coming

Aventus scowled and had to refrain from shouting. "What did the Dark elf do to deserve this?" Aventus now had his arms crossed.

"let's just say, he _played_ with some children while their mother took a dirt nap." Red was now crossed legged on the floor, her attention was focused on a very finely crafted dagger with an odd red glow surrounding it.

The aggressive look on Aventus' face faded and was replaced with a conflicted expression. "So, this man is a bad person... He hurts children?"

Her gaze was still focused on the knife in her hand, Red nodded slowly as though agreeing with herself to an unasked question. "That Elf has 7 lives on his head." The Breton girl stabbed the dagger into the ground, a shock wave of energy pulsed out and made Aventus' hair stand up. "He also has a **scarily** long list of unmentionable acts as well."

Aventus uncrossed his arms and stood up straighter. "Then... He deserves to die."

Red and Aventus made eye contact for a brief moment. The girl smirked cheekily and Aventus nodded back with a fleeting smile on his face.

Red pointed at the dark elf. "We'll talk details later. Have fun playing with your food."

All of his anticipation was gone now and only one thought stuck in his mind.

_This elf needs to die and I need to kill him._

Aventus looked at all of the materials he had to work with and what could be of any use to him. The rope was about 10.5 meters, the perfect length to reach the dark elf from behind the line, but incapable of strangling him from the correct distance, the oil was thick enough to pour but would stick to whatever it touched. The string was good for kindling and nothing more, too frail. Both rocks were perfectly round. The fork was a fork. There was also the flint and the rusty knife.

"Any rules about using magic?" Aventus raised an eyebrow.

Red suddenly pulled out a piece of paper and studied it quickly, almost as though she was outraged. "My information doesn't say you're a magic user. Dammit Runa."

Aventus looked sheepishly down at his feet as he tested the ropes strength. "I only ever learned to make a tiny flame as big as my finger nail, I can't throw it and its not even hot" Aventus snapped his finger and a flame about the size of a match hovered on his palm. "Just a party trick... If I ever got invited to parties..."

Red grunted disapprovingly. "OK, fine. You can use your tiny flame, but I'm taking your flint and that rusty knife, use any other fancy magic and I'll cut off a finger."

"Sweet. I've got a plan." Aventus dipped his fingers in the container of oil and shuddered. It felt unnatural, as though it shouldn't exist, this probably wasn't normal oil at all. Aventus pulled the goo out as though it were stretchy glue. "This is some messed up oil you have here."

A bit of maneuvering later and everything was set up. the rope had the slightest trickle of oil from one end to the other. One end of the rope was behind the stick and the other end was at the dark elf's feet.

Red approached the plotting boy and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Ooh, I'm intrigued. Most people just throw the rusty knife or a rock over and over again while hoping for the best. You're different, I like that."

"Just wait, it gets better." Aventus picked up the fork and one end of the rope and held them by the dark elfs tongue. "I need the rope to stay put somehow."

Aventus stabbed down and Red sighed romantically. "I really like you."

blood was gushing down the dark elfs mouth, the fork embedded in both his tongue and jaw bled in 4 separate streams, it was quite disturbing.

"Nearly done." Aventus picked up the remaining oil and forced the dark elf to drink all 3 litres until it was practically drowning him and rubbed the rest around his mouth.

Red and Aventus walked side by side to the stick on the ground, marking the half way point that he needed to Finnish the dark elf from.

"Do it." Red clapped slowly in appreciation.

Aventus summoned a flame in his hand and placed it on the rope. "Those who hurt children deserve to die."

instantly the oil on the rope caught on fire and rushed away like a bright and scared snake. The fire reached the dark elf's bleeding mouth and traveled down his throat and into all the oil in his stomach. Light could be seen coming from his mouth for what seemed like an hour.

Red opened the only door in the building and peered outside.

"Judging by the distance of the sun, the spell has worn off and he is indeed dead." Red approached Aventus again and hugged him.

"Welcome to the dark Brotherhood, Aventus." She whispered in his ear as though he was an old friend who was going away for a long time.

Aventus smiled and felt genuinely happy, the world was now a safer place and he was going to keep making it safer.

**Reviews are appreciated.**


	4. I said No Horses

The sunlight from the open door struck Aventus like a hammer, it only now just occurred to him that he was in almost complete darkness for the last few hours

Red smiled insecurely and shuffled from one foot to the other. "Aventus, would you like to come with me to the sanctuary, or would you rather go alone?"

Smiling sheepishly, Aventus looked down at his feet. "I think going together would be good, it's been too long since I've had a friend."

Red's eyes lit up like the morning sun. Her smile went from insecure to simply radiant.

"Great! Lets get going already. It's a long way to the Riften Sanctuary and we need supplies from town."

Aventus went cold for a second. "Riften?"

**Two days later**

"Ya know, some how I imagined we would have left Windhelm by this time." Aventus had his eyes closed and was laying down a sack of recently stolen food.

Red had only just walked in the door, additional equipment in her arms. "We need supplies you silly. A week long journey on foot takes a lot of food." Red was counting again on her fingers. "With that sack, we would go about 6 days with food. Day 7 would have scraps or old perishable items to eat."

Aventus groaned loudly and sweeped away his hair so that it wasn't covering his eyes. "I should get a haircut. Actually. I should get some money... Then I should get a hair cut."

Red giggled childishly and smiled. "I like your hair. You look fluffy when you're clean, and dangerous when you're dirty. Two of my favorite things"

Aventus opened his eyes and sat up "Back to the matter at hand though, why do we have to go on foot, why not take a caravan or something?"" Red's head slowly lifted higher as Aventus talked. "A horse would be nice." Red was not wide eyed and looking up at the ceiling.

The Breton girl dropped all of her supplies on the ground and rushed to Aventus, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him "WHY STEAL FOOD WHEN WE CAN STEAL A HORSE!"

Conflicting thoughts raced through Aventus' mind "No, I'd rather leave innocent people alone, they'd miss the horse and that would be sad for me and them." Aventus removed Red's hands from his shoulders and made a mental note of how insane Red looked at the moment.

Backing away slowly, Red avoided eye contact like the plague "Fine. I'm going out for 5 minutes, be back soon." Red was failing to hold back a smile.

"Are you going to steal a horse?" Aventus laid back down on his sack.

Red replied in an almost flirty tone "I promise nothing."

"Please don't." Aventus pleaded as the door slammed shut.

**E****xactly** 5 Minutes Later  


"Aventus, come quick!" Red rushed upstairs poked Aventus in the forehead until he woke up and rushed back outside

Just as Aventus was starting to stand up, the unmistakable noise of a horse snorting filled Aventus with dread.

_Dammit Red. I said no horse  
_

Totally aware that things were going to only get worse, Aventus walked downstairs and felt his heart warm at the adorable sight before him.

The horse was snow white and extremely beautiful, buried in the horses mane was Red, nuzzling and being nuzzled back by the horse.

Before Aventus could say anything about how adorable they were, he noticed an item in Red's hand, the very finely crafted dagger was coated in blood

In the corner of his eye, Aventus saw the barest movement. Spinning around as fast as he could, Aventus turned to face 5 town guards walking towards him.

Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the guard at the front turned invisible.

_The same guard from yesterday!_

Aventus shook the girls shoulder "Red, guards are coming."

Ending her nuzzling session with great reluctance, Red pulled out another dagger and handed it to Aventus "Have fun. I'm busy playing with Buttercup." Red then continued Nuzzling the Horse.

_Dammit Red. I should of said no murder.  
_


End file.
